Prince Edmund (Blackadder) - Episode List

Episode List

• The Foretelling

Richard III (Peter Cook) wins the Battle of Bosworth Field, but is accidentally killed by his incompetent great-nephew Edmund who thinks he is stealing his horse, who also unintentionally saves the life of the leader of the enemy, Henry Tudor (Peter Benson), only realising who he is when seeing a portrait, by which time Henry is escaping from Edmund's bed, where he was recovering. Edmund was going to leave Henry to die in the cottage where they came across him, but as they were leaving Percy overheard Henry say he was rich, so Percy brought him back thinking there would be a reward. Richard IV is proclaimed King, and Edmund, elevated to Prince, re-styles himself first as "The Black Vegetable" before thinking better of Baldrick's suggestion of "The Black Adder". However, he is haunted by Richard's angry ghost, including a scene at the feast based on the Ghost of Banquo scene in Macbeth. He then meets three witches who prophesy that he will one day be King; he does not know that they thought he was Henry Tudor.

• Born to be King

With King Richard's imminent return from the Crusades, Dougal MacAngus (Alex Norton), the King's Supreme Commander, is awarded Edmund's Scottish land. In revenge, Edmund plots to kill him by replacing a false dagger with a real one for a play MacAngus is playing a murder victim in, until MacAngus reveals letters that show the Queen had an affair with his father. Thinking that his brother Harry is illegitimate, Edmund reveals this to the court, only to be humiliated when they reveal that he is more likely the illegitimate one. In revenge, Edmund blows MacAngus' head off with a cannon.

This episode, though inaccurate in its depiction of an English nobleman in medieval times being the duke of anywhere within Scotland, takes the concept of the treacherous (and illegitimate) Edmund from King Lear further, and also satirizes the Medieval views of entertainment, such as bearded ladies and eunuchs. Edmund also expresses outrage that Morris dancing is still around in his day and age.

• The Archbishop

The King, in order to more easily manipulate the huge wealth and property of the Church, makes Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury after having the previous one killed for making him lose the Duke of Winchester's lands. Things go well for the reluctant Edmund at first, particularly after he convinces a dying Lord to sign his lands over to the Crown, - until a pair of drunken knights (freshly returned from the Crusades), overkeen to advance in the royal favour, misinterpret a comment made by him, and set out to murder the Archbishop (in reality, the Archbishop Thomas Becket was assassinated in 1170 by knights of Henry II in Canterbury Cathedral). Edmund, Percy and Baldrick take the fight into a nunnery and, by twisting the truth when the outraged Mother Superior finds them, Edmund manipulates her into writing to the Vatican and terminating his hated episcopal career.

• The Queen of Spain's Beard

To improve international relations with Spain in an attempt to threaten France during a peroid of turmoil in Europe, Richard IV decides to marry Edmund to the Spanish Infanta (Miriam Margolyes). Finding her grossly unattractive, Edmund tries to get out of the marriage—firstly by pretending to be gay and dressing like the Earl of Doncaster, then by attempting to marry Talley Applebottom, a random peasant woman, which fails when her husband turns up at the ceremony, and then by having Baldrick surreptitiously sleep with the lascivious Infanta so that she is not a virgin. All his schemes fail miserably and so he resigns to his fate. At the last moment, however, the political landscape shifts, and an alliance with Spain is no longer viable—much to Edmund's relief. The King then orders him to marry the 8-year-old Princess Leia of Hungary (Natasha King) instead, and in the closing scene Edmund is reading his new bride a bedtime story.

• Witchsmeller Pursuivant

With Black Death sweeping across England, the country is in turmoil, and the King is one of the many who has caught the disease. He is temporarily insane, nearly killing Edmund when mistaking him for one of the Turkish. The Lords blame witchcraft, so the Witchsmeller Pursuivant (Frank Finlay) is summoned to identify the culprit. Having heard Edmund insult him earlier, the Witchsmeller immediately decides that Edmund is responsible, and tricks him into failing a trial. With this, he puts him on trial and of course, finds him guilty. Edmund, Percy, and Baldrick are set to be burnt at the stake, but are saved by Edmund's mother, the Queen, who is secretly an actual witch, and who also causes the death of the Witchsmeller.

• The Black Seal

29 January 1498, Saint Juniper's Day, the day the King of England bestows honours to his kinfolk. When Edmund is reduced by his father to the sole dignity of Lord Warden of the Royal Privies, with his dukedom of Edinburgh being transferred to Thomas, Lord Hastings, while Harry is given numerous honours, he is outraged and plots to seize the throne. He first dismisses Percy and Baldrick. He then rounds up the six most evil men in England, but on his way back, he is stopped by his arch nemesis and childhood rival, Philip of Burgundy - known to his enemies as The Hawk (Patrick Allen), who had disguised himself as a retired Morris dancer. He is imprisoned in a cell with snails, but escapes after getting a key from Mad Gerald (Rik Mayall), made from Gerald's teeth, albeit after a year since being locked up. He then summons the Black Seal who hide in wait for the Hawk. But his band join the Hawk, and he is tortured horribly by a machine developed by the Hawk specifically for the purpose, which is unnecessarily complicated and designed to grind various parts of Edmund (including his beloved codlings) into mince. Baldrick and Percy poison the conspirators with drugged wine, but are too late to stop the machine. Edmund survives long enough to be comforted by his family, and the King finally remembers his name, before saying 'Sorry, Edgar,' although he gets his nom de guerre wrong, calling him The Black Dagger. However, they toast the dying Edmund with poisoned wine Percy had left behind. They all die, leaving Edmund King at long last. However, he soon expires himself after he foolishly opts to check that the wine was the killer by sipping it, making him only King for about 30 seconds.